FORDINGBRIDGE TO BRAMSHAW. 119 



cottages and orchards one cottage on our left- 

 hand side having its walls nearly covered by rosy 

 and tempting peaches. ' Tempting ' indeed they 

 are, and inquiring at the cottage door we learn 

 from the owner a peasant woman that her 

 peach wall is her fruit market and that she 

 will sell us as many as we wish. So we 

 start for our forest walk with a store of peaches 

 for refreshment on the way; and that pretty 

 cottage on the hill with its luscious wall-fruit will 

 long occupy a green and pleasant corner in our 

 memory. 



But now our road becomes steep and we begin 

 to climb a veritable hill. "We wind on, and, less 

 than halfway from the top, we pass another little 

 cottage fronted, next the road, by a grassy bank, 

 on which the sweet little blossoms of the Daisy are 

 rising amidst the freshest of green, daisy leaves 

 as freshly as if it were early Spring instead of 

 Autumn. The road gets steeper as we ascend it, 

 and the hedgebanks, on either side of it, get higher 

 and higher. From their shady recesses Ferns 

 now peep out Male Fern, Prickly Shield Fern 

 and the glossy, beautiful fronds of the Black 



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